Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Raises Holdings in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its position in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 99.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,219 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Entergy were worth $1,096,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Entergy by 101.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,133,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,952,773,000 after purchasing an additional 26,312,267 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Entergy by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,408,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,501,509,000 after buying an additional 128,667 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Entergy by 105.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,363,219 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $558,279,000 after buying an additional 3,773,492 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Entergy by 53.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,718,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $754,318,000 after acquiring an additional 1,981,611 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,965,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $651,206,000 after acquiring an additional 37,279 shares in the last quarter. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Entergy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ETR opened at $84.38 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $83.34 and its 200 day moving average is $75.96. The stock has a market cap of $36.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. Entergy Corporation has a 1-year low of $50.19 and a 1-year high of $88.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.03. Entergy had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 10.68%. The firm had revenue of $2.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.84%. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.77%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ETR shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Entergy from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Entergy from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Entergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $86.50 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Entergy from $79.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.75.

About Entergy

Entergy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and retail distribution of electricity in the United States. It generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, including the City of New Orleans; and distributes natural gas.